Massive 1-Day Outreach Campaign Reaches Hundreds of Homes

Posted September 28, 2015, by Patricia Billinger, Denver, CO

More than 450 volunteers joined the American Red Cross on Sept. 25 in a one-day outreach blitz in two dozen communities across six Colorado counties. Data is still being verified from that effort, but the Red Cross estimates that the blitz will have succeeded in installing close to 700 additional smoke alarms and reaching more than 900 people with fire safety education and resources.

Hundreds of cadets from the Air Force Academy volunteered their time with the campaign as part of a project to promote leadership and community service. The one-day blitz was part of a larger, five-year campaign by the Red Cross aimed at reducing deaths and injuries due to home fires by 25 percent.

In just under one year, the American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign is credited with saving at least 26 lives nationwide.

More than 63,000 families are safer thanks to the smoke alarms and safety education they received in their homes from Red Cross volunteers, firefighters and other community partners – including more than 1,500 families here in Colorado and Wyoming. And more than 311,000 children nationwide have learned to be safer in emergencies from Red Cross volunteers and apps.

“In this country, seven people lose their lives every day from a home fire,” said George Sullivan, Director of Preparedness for the Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming. “Even one death from a home fire is tragic. Over the next few years, the Home Fire Campaign will keep on going to help protect people and prepare them for emergencies like a fire in their home.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Since the Home Fire Campaign launched in October 2014 through the end of last month, the Red Cross and its partners have achieved the following results here in Colorado and Wyoming:

Those statistics don't yet include the tally of people reached and smoke alarms installed on Sept. 25.

NATIONWIDE EFFORT

People of all ages are vulnerable to home fires. During the course of this campaign, the lives saved included a two-month-old baby, a 73-year-old grandmother, and 11 members of an extended New Orleans family by new smoke alarms that the Red Cross and our partners installed.

The Home Fire Campaign is a multi-year effort to reduce the number of home fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent. Working alongside fire departments and community groups across the country, the Red Cross and its partners have installed more than 125,000 smoke alarms in nearly 2,400 cities and towns. Read more about the national outcomes here.

GET INVOLVED People can visit redcross.org/Colorado/firesafety to find out more about how to protect themselves and their loved homes from fire or to sign up to volunteer for the campaign. They can also help by volunteering their time or making a donation today to Red Cross Disaster Relief by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. We respond tonearly 70,000 other disasters every year, from home fires to hurricanes and more. Learn more about how Disaster Relief donations have helped people affected by previous disasters including home fires.